Favorite Schools

Favorite Teams

Christie chief of staff says he raised few questions about bridge scandal

Christie Chief of Staff O’Dowd grilled on governor’s “inconsistent” Bridgegate statementKevin O’Dowd chief of staff to Gov. Chris Christie, testified before the New Jersey Legislative Select Committee on Investigation in its probe of the closing of George Washington Bridge lanes in Sept. 2013. Near the end of the more than seven plus hours of questioning, O’Dowd testifies he turned over to Christie a key email sent between top staffers during the closures on Dec. 13. Despite the email, Christie publicly state during a press conference later that day that his staff had no knowledge of the closures. (video by Brian Donohue / The Star-Ledger)

TRENTON — The chief of staff to Gov. Chris Christie, Kevin O'Dowd, today told the state legislative panel investigating the George Washington Bridge lane closings that he had "no prior knowledge of" and "played no role in" the politically charged matter.

The nearly seven hours of testimony revealed that O’Dowd, a veteran federal prosecutor and widely expected to be the next state attorney general, asked few questions and made few efforts to get to the bottom of who orchestrated the lane closings and why.

His recollection of conversations about the closings from the time they occurred in September to when the scandal exploded in January varied widely, as he sometimes remembered exact quotations, and other times was unable to recall specifics.

O'Dowd offered a dramatically different view from others in the Christie administration of Bridget Anne Kelly, a former deputy chief of staff who was fired in January after being linked to the lane closings, saying that Kelly was “hard-working, energetic and loyal.”

Others have called her emotional, insecure and constantly seeking approval from others.

Nothing O'Dowd said shed new light on the motivation for the lane closings, or who was ultimately to blame. And nothing has linked O'Dowd with the decision to close the lanes. But Democrats said the inaction on his part and others in the administration spoke loudly.

“It seems like a lack of will to actually get to the bottom of why this issue had now percolated, at least from their perspective, into the governor’s office,” Assemblyman John Wisniewski (D-Middlesex), a co-chairman of the panel, said after the hearing. “That lack of curiosity is very troubling for somebody whose job it is to be chief of staff.”

At a news conference in Camden, Christie’s defended O’Dowd’s actions, saying he did what he was told and split the duties with Charles McKenna, his former chief counsel.

“I spoke to both of them about it and they worked in a joint way on that,” Christie said. “Kevin worked in his area of responsibility, and Charlie worked in his. The authorities unit reported to the chief counsel, not to chief of staff. They worked in their own spheres.”

Christie Chief of Staff O’Dowd testifies about dinner with David Sampson as Bridgegate brokeKevin O’Dowd, chief of staff to Gov. Chris Christie, testified on June 9, 2014 before the New Jersey Legislative Select Committee on Investigation in its probe of the September 2013 closing of George Washington Bridge local toll lanes in Fort Lee. In this clip. O’Dowd describes having dinner with former Port Authority Executive Director David Sampson as the scandal begins to erupt, but says he can’t recall any conversation the two had about the issue. (video by Brian Donohue / The Star-Ledger)

O’Dowd said today that in the weeks and months after the closings, he was told that the controversy was a Port Authority of New York and New Jersey matter, and that a traffic study was undertaken and the agency did not follow its proper protocols.

He said he never asked for the traffic study or questioned the explanation.

O’Dowd said he was surprised Dec. 12 when he first learned Kelly may have been involved. He said he spoke to Christie at the governor’s mansion in Princeton, and the governor told him to ask Kelly whether or not she had a hand in the matter.

“He said to me something to the effect of, this bridge issue is still out there, the noise on political retribution is still out there, this is a major distraction, I need you to talk to Bridget Kelly and ask her whether or not she had anything to do with closing the lanes," O'Dowd testified.

He said Kelly told him she was not involved, and he did not doubt her response.

“Bridget Kelly is someone I have worked with and known for four years, someone who I thought very highly of – hard working, energetic, loyal,” O’Dowd said.

Weeks later, in early January, an email surfaced linking Kelly and David Wildstein, a Christie ally at the Port Authority, with the decision to close the lanes. Wildstein had resigned the month prior, and Christie subsequently fired Kelly.

The governor also cut ties with his two-time campaign manager, Bill Stepien, who today sat with his attorney, Kevin Marino, in the second row of the hearing room to listen to O’Dowd’s testimony. The two declined to comment on the day’s events.

The day after he first questioned Kelly, O’Dowd learned there may be emails linking her to the closings. Less than an hour before Christie held a news conference to say that no one on his staff had any role, Kelly provided O'Dowd an email message from Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich that had been forwarded to her by a staffer during the closings.

In the email, Sokolich expressed anger over the closings, asked that access be restored and said there was talk that they were undertaken as political retribution. Kelly responded to the forwarded message by saying, “Good,” but did not provide that to O’Dowd.

The same day in December when she provided O’Dowd the message, she spoke to the recipient of her undisclosed reply, Christina Genovese Renna, and asked her to delete it.

O'Dowd said he was surprised to be learning of the email more than 90 days after it had been sent, but said Kelly remained insistent she had nothing to do with the closings.

"I wasn’t [concerned] because she wasn’t concerned," O'Dowd said.

He said he informed Christie of the e-mail before the governor held the news conference, in which he told reporters he had been assured that no one on his staff or as part of his administration had acted on his behalf to close the lanes as political retribution.

Under questioning by Wisniewski, O’Dowd conceded the email he brought to Christie’s attention before the news conference “seems to be inconsistent” with that statement.

O’Dowd said Kelly also told him she sometimes deleted emails, but did not believe she deleted any related to the closings. He said that did not raise any alarm with him, despite training instructing governor’s office employees not to delete emails.